Jonathan: I’ll extend emergency rule if…•Seeks help from US, France •Says abducted girls’ whereabouts still unknown

President Goodluck Jonathan has hinted that he could extend the current state of emergency in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States. Jonathan, who spoke thi evening during a media chat on national television and radio, said a six-month or one-year emergency rule could not wipe out terrorism, saying that had never happened anywhere in the world […]

President Goodluck Jonathan has hinted that he could extend the current state of emergency in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States.

Jonathan, who spoke thi evening during a media chat on national television and radio, said a six-month or one-year emergency rule could not wipe out terrorism, saying that had never happened anywhere in the world

He said he was still consulting with the stakeholders on a possible extension of the emergency rule, adding that he would extend it if necessary.

The president claimed that the emergency rule was working effectively in the three states, saying it was very helpful to extend it otherwise the security personnel in the areas would be frustrated.

According to him, pulling out the troops is preferable to allowing them to stay there and be frustrated.

“Yes we are consulting (on the possible extension of the state of emergency) with the security agencies and the relevant stakeholders. When we need to extend it, we will extend it because I believe that we are succeeding and it is very helpful for the operations to go on. Without that, the security operatives in these places would be so frustrated. We would prefer to pull them out than to allow them to stay there and be frustrated.

“You see, terrorism is not a phenomenon that you think a state emergency of six months to one year will wipe it out. It has not happened anywhere in the world. Except occasional terror. If not, a country where terrorists believe that they must take government to their knees or probably if it is a religious sentiment and that they must introduce their religion…   

“The state of emergency is effective. A number of people think differently. When you talk about state of emergency, some Nigerians even feel that if you declare state of emergency, the political institutions must collapse. That is their own idea of state of emergency that a governor will leave, state assemblies will be dissolved, council chairmen and councilors will leave. As long as those people are there, they feel that state of emergency is not complete, or impartial or ineffective. Some people think that if it is a state of emergency, you are going to handle internal security issues as if you are going to fight an international war.

“Even in international wars, conventional soldiers operate under strict guidelines. We are aware of soldiers being prosecuted for war crimes; that is even when we are fighting international war and it is worst if it is internal. And that is the advantage the criminals have over our conventional approach. Criminals can use cartridges to fire a car, but a soldier cannot. Even ordinary rifle, it has to be during confrontation.

“You cannot just see a car moving and say these are the insurgents and then you go ahead; it is against the international law. Even the weapons you seize for example, you cannot even use. So, they must act under some international guidelines. That is the key reasons why government declared state of emergency in these places, to make sure that security personnel have some leverage and that you minimise litigation.

“If anybody is saying the state of emergency is not effective it is not true. It is not that if you declare state of emergency you wipe out everybody. The terrorists are living with us; it’s guerilla warfare. They mix with the normal population. And that is why there was this advice, I will not mention where it comes from, that we should not even comb the Sambisa forest and try to displace them and that when we do that, they will disperse and even enter into to normal population and they will be creating more explosions across the country.

“So, we know how difficult it is to handle terrorism; it is not a conventional war fare where you have a troop that you are going to conquer to take over that territory and defense. So, with state of emergency, don’t expect the Nigerian Airforce to and blast everywhere and wipe out everybody. If somebody says the state of emergency is not successful, they are not being realistic; they are saying that out of frustration because they feel that maybe it has taken too long for this crisis to end. But I always tell them that look I am not trying to defend government. Take a country like Pakistan, Nigeria and them are almost at the same level. Pakistan is even superior to us in a number of ways”, he said.

Speaking further, Jonathan said his administration could not negotiate with Boko Haram on the abduction of the schoolgirls of Borno State because the sect had not claimed responsibility for it.

The president also disclosed that the whereabouts of the girls was still unknown.

“You cannot negotiate with somebody you don’t know. Nobody has claimed ownership of this abduction, nobody; even through the twitter or the other social media that the Boko Haram normally used to show what they’ve done. When they bombed This Day office, it was shown to us that they’re the one that bombed and that even showed what happened in a number of cases.

“As regard these girls, I don’t know. You’re a journalists, you should know more than me. I hardly have time to go to the social media. You cannot negotiate with somebody who has not shown ownership, even the spokesperson of Boko Haram has not come out to tell Nigerians that they did the kidnapping.

“The issue of negotiation has not come up. Recently, we talked about the Malaysian aircraft that just disappeared and up till this time, the whole thing about its disappearance is becoming mysterious. Even the experts in the aviation sector in the biggest countries in the world with technology cannot tell us what happened to the aircraft. These girls’ issue is similar to that. But the good thing about it is that we have not heard of anything bad about them from dawn to dawn. It is just that there are rumours that some of them have been married out. Married out to who? Where? If people married them, they must live their lives; they cannot continue to hide forever.

“…We are now looking beyond that these girls are in Cameroon or that they are in one isolated place. We are looking within the communities around and that is why we are sending this team. I believe that by the time we send this team to Borno State, these are civil societies, there are journalists, members of the NUT, National Union of Teachers, association of Nigerian principals and association of parents teachers association. These are the people; so, they will be committed because they are thinking of their own children. The same way, they will go there with commitment and empathy to solve the problem more than the ordinary people who probably would be afraid of the police to be able to go and give us information.

“Those girls must be within these areas and they will be able to access the terrain. We have the records from WAEC office; 530 students were registered for WAEC in that centre. Probably about 193 had been relocated to another school and they are writing their exams; some of the boys are not even writing exams now based on the number of the boys. There are 130 boys registered in that centre; some of them, the last compulsory paper that written was Mathematics. Some of the boys didn’t even go for the mathematics and the number of the girls didn’t go for the Mathematics.

“The assumption is that those girls that didn’t go for Mathematics which is a compulsory exam may be among the kidnapped ones. But because the boys were day students–the school was supposed to be a girls school–and because of lack of secondary schools within the area and the boys were going to distant places and that they were being way-laid on the road, they decided to make it a mix school. But these 130 boys stayed in their homes as day students. Some of them too didn’t write Mathematics. So, you cannot put that way as if you have concluded that aspect that all the girls who didn’t write the mathematics were kidnapped; no. of course we do know that not everybody who registers for exams will go for the exams. So, we are working on it.

“The human angle, that is, the angle of cooperation that we need from the guardians and the parents is critical. And if the parents and the guardians give us that cooperation, we will surely get those girls out”, he said

Asked if there was any confirmed information on the whereabouts of the girls, Jonathan said “No, no!. There is no confirmation on where the schoolgirls are kept.
There is nobody who has come up as the leader of the Boko Haram; but in the case of the Niger Delta militants, when you invite them, they come”.

On whether he was considering the approach used to reach out to the Niger Delta militants, especially involving the elders and leaders of thoughts from the affected areas, the president said: “The Niger Delta approach was quite different from that of the terrorists. The Niger Delta militants were not terrorists. I am not trying to defend them because I am from there. Even when I was deputy governor, as a governor, President Obsanjo then sometime sent for us and the leaders of these boys and sometimes the leaders of these boys used to come.

“I saw Asari Dokubo for the first time in the State House here when I came for a meeting with President Obasanjo. I didn’t see him at all in the Niger Delta as well as most of them. So, they had a reason for the agitation and when we called them for a meeting as state governors or the president, they appeared and they would tell you what they wanted. These are people who want to kill. Niger Delta militants didn’t go to markets or motor parks to kill people; no.

“So, whenever we talk about terrorists all over the world, as journalists, you should know that the approach of terrorists is different; the mentality of terrorists is different. Terrorists live on ideology based on religion or politics or something. Nobody has appeared that I am a leader of Boko Haram, this is my problem and I want to interface with government”.

Jonathan also dispelled the allegations that helicopters were supplying weapons to the insurgents, saying “Nobody as shown us that this is a clip of the helicopter dropping items for the terrorists”.

He said though the security agencies were capable of defeating the insurgents, Nigeria was also seeking the cooperation of foreign nations to surmount the security challenges.

He said his government had  made three consecutive requests to US President Barrack Obama to send his men “to come and have experience of what is happening. We have even contacted Russia. We are also collaborating with African nieghbours such as Cameroun, Chad and so on. We have been making requests from these super powers because to fight terrorists, you need superior powers”.

The president said he never said Boko Haram had infiltrated his cabinet.

“I never said that Boko Haram has infiltrated my cabinet. But what I said is that they are even in government which includes the executive, legislature and the judiciary. I used the word ‘government’. You remember that a senator was being investigated. Even now, we ars still investigating some security personnel for involvement”, he said

On when he would declare his ambition for the 2015 elections, Jonathan said Nigerians should be less concerned about that, saying they should rather be concerned about how the economy would be managed, security improved and credible elections guaranteed.

He assured that the INEC would be given everything needed to conduct free, fair and credible elections in 2015.

“I have always said that this should not be a concern to Nigerians. Rather what they should be concerned about is how do we manage the economy, improve the security and guarantee free and fair election. Whether Jonathan declares or not should not be an issue. The PDP and the APC are the major parties now. The APC has not even announced its own presidential candidate and you are asking the ruling party to do so”, he said.

He said his party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), would name its presidential candidate only after the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) had done so.

On the forthcoming World Economic Forum on Africa, Jonathan said he had not shut down Abuja as speculated, saying “but because of the huge number of people and we envisage that there would be hold-ups because of some construction works going on in some areas, we need to take measures to ease these roads. Nigeria is not the first place this type of measures have been taken, but it is just that when things are not properly explained, people will misread it. So, we plead with Nigerians living in Abuja to bear with us. These three days will not kill us”.

On the corruption and missing oil money, the president said: “it has always been a trend that in a every regime, there is always allegation of missing oil money. People mention very huge money that are unbelievable. Is it possible for anybody to steal $20 billion and people will not know. To answer your question directly the audit is still going on, we should give them time to conclude their clinical audit.

On the court issue concerning the petroleum minister, Jonathan said: “I’m not aware that she has obtained an injunction to stop them from doing their jobs. Most of my ministers have spend more of their time in the parliament. And you know, most of the parliament members are politicians and virtually everything that goes there is politicized”.

On the hike in pump price of petroleum, he said “I’m not the one that changed the price. I cannot increase the pump price of petroleum products through the back door. If anybody has done that, it is criminal and I’m going to set up investigation into that. The department of Petroleum resources are supposed to ensure that marketers don’t cheat the consumers. I will not change the pump price through the back door and I have no plan to increase the price now”.